Best Practices for the Gastroenterologist: Trauma-Informed Care in the Endoscopy Suite

Trauma is a risk factor for several gastrointestinal illnesses, especially disorders related to the gut-brain axis. Gastroenterology (GI) care environments, particularly endoscopy units, put patients at risk of unintentional re-traumatization due to the sensitive nature of the questions, examinations, and procedures. Trauma-informed care has six pillars outlined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration and mutuality, empowerment voice and choice, and cultural historical and gender issues. Adopting these pillars for trauma-informed GI care can transform the patient and staff experience. Traumatic or potentially traumatic experiences are common, and therefore a universal trauma precautions approach is useful in a busy GI environment. There are considerations for each of the pre-, peri-, and post-procedural settings that are simple to implement, which can increase the sense of safety, trust, and autonomy for each patient in the endoscopy suite.